Furnace



June 26, 1945. R. c. JEPERITINGER FURNACE Filed June 4, 1941 4Sheets-Sheet 1 Ewhard U. Jp aprlmq'br June 26, 1945.

R. c. JEPERTINGER' 2,379,083

, FURNACE] 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June- 4, 1941 .Ezahard 5 June 26, 195. R. c. JE'PERTINGER 2, 8

FURNACE 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed June 4, 1941 J 26, 9 R. c. JEPERTINGER2,379,083

FURNACE Filed June 4, 1941 I 4 Sheet-Sheet P? LJ .Fzchard [1J9 rimyPatented June 26, 1945 FURNACE Richard C. Jepertinger, Milwaukee, Wis.,now by changev of name Richardv C. Jaye, assignor to Syncromatic AirConditioning Corporation,

Milwaukee, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Application June 4, 1941,Serial No. 396,531

2 Claims. (Cl. 126-439) This invention relates to furnaces and refersparticularly to hot air furnaces of the type designed primarily for homeheating.

The conventional hot air furnace consists of a fire pot enclosed withinan outer shell through which the air to be heated flows.

It is, of course, obvious that the efficiency of the furnace dependslargely upon the area of the heated surfaces contacted by the air. I o

this endattempts were made in conventional hot air furnaces heretoforein use to increase the area of the heating surface by the addition ofdoughnut shaped flue passages, baffles and other devices for lengtheningthe path of the heated gases in their passage from the fire pot to theexhaust, flue, but even with the best of these expedients, theefficiency of conventional hot air furnaces heretofore in use was nothigh.

It is, therefore, an important object of this invention to provide afurnace which is so designed that considerably greater heating area isobtained without increasing the overall dimensions of the furnace perrated capacity but rather with the accompaniment of substantialreduction in overall dimensions.

The various schemes employed in conventional hot air furnacesheretofore, in use for increasing the area of the heated surfaceresulted in tortuous passages within which soot accumulation wasinevitable and from which it was difficult if not impossible to removethe soot. Consequently, these past furnaces were subject to a continualdecrease in efliciency due to the increasing ac cumulation of soot andthe consequent loss of heat transfer.

It is, therefore, another object of the presentinvention to provide afurnace which is so designed that the flues or passages through whichthe heated gases flow are so disposed that there will be no accumulationof soot on those surfaces relied upon for heat transfer.

Another object of this invention is to provide damper mounted in thefront of the furnace and so arranged as to obviate the customary checkvalve in the chimney flue.

Another object of this invention is to provide I an auxiliary exhaustflue which is automatically opened upon opening of the fire door to thuspreclude the discharge of smoke and heated gases into the furnace roomduring firing of thefurnace.

With the above and other objects in view. which will appear as thedescription proceeds, this invention resides in the novel construction,

. combination and arrangement of parts substana furnace of the characterdescribed which is so be readily adapted for either coal firing or oilfiring.

A further object of this invention is to provide a novel combinationdraft regulator and check to illustrate the manner in which the damperfor tially as hereinafter described and more particularly defined by theappended claims, it beingunderstood that such changes in the preciseembodiment of the hereindisclosed invention may be made as come withinthe scope of the claims.

The accompanying drawings illustrate one complete example of thephysical embodiment of the invention constructed according to the bestmode sofar devised for the practical application .of the principlesthereof, and in which:

Figure 1 is a front View of a furnace constructed in accordance withthis invention;

Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view taken on a plane set back from thefront of the furnace;

Figure 3 is a detail-sectional view'taken through Figure I on the planeof the line 33 to show the combination draft regulator and check;

Figure 4 is a detail sectional View taken through Figure 1 on the planeof the line 4'4 toillustrate the manner in which the doors close with agas tight seal;

Figure 5 is a horizontal cross sectional view taken through Figure 1 onthe plane of the line 5--5;

Figure 6 is a vertical sectional view taken hrough Figure 5 on the planeof the line 6-45;

Figure 7 is a diagrammatic vertical sectional View on a reduced scaleillustrating the manner in which an air cleaner and blower may beattached to the furnace;

Figure 8 is a horizontal sectional view taken through Figure l on theplane of the line 8-8 the auxiliary exhaust flue is controlled by thefire door; and

Figure 9 is a detail sectional view taken through Figure l on the planeof the line 9-9 showing the upper portion of the furnace;

Referring now particularly to the accompanying drawings, in which likenumerals indicate like parts, the numeral 5 designates the outer shellof the furnace into which the air to be heated tively. Both doors aresuitably hinged to swing to and from closed position in the customarymanner.

Inside the shell 5 i a gas chamber designated generally by the numerall3 and comprising a bottom wall I4, a top wall I5, side walls IS, a backwall I! and a front wall formed by the front panel ID with its doors IIand [2.

Within the gas chamber is an inner chamber providing a fire pot orcombustion chamber l8 and an ash pit l9 separated by the usual grate 20,if the furnace is designed to be coal fired. If it is oil fired thegrate is omitted and the burner is arranged to project its flame intothe inner chamber through the ash pit opening as is customary. I

The walls of the fire pot or combustion chamber are of suitablerefractory material. The rear wall of the fire pot or combustion chamberconforms to the shape of the rear wall I! of the gas chamber whichoverlies the same for the'height of the fire pot or combustion chamberand the front wall of the fire pot is cut down at the fire door.

It is to be observed that this inner chamber consisting of the fire potor combustion chamber and the ash pit is not as tall as the gas chamber13 and that as a consequence, a gas dome 2| and a gas collecting chamber22 are formed respectively above the fire pot or combustion chamber andbeneath the ash pit.

An exhaust flue 23 leads from the lower gas collecting chamber 22 toconnect with the chimney. Hence, the heated gases rising from the firepot or combustion chamber must flow down around the sides thereof toreach the exhaust flue. To this end the side walls [6 of the gas chamberhave a novel formation which not only provides a plurality of separatevertical gas fiues 24 of small cross section leading from the dome 2| tothe collecting chamber 22 but affords an exceptionally large area ofheated surface for contact with. the air to be heated.

As best shown in Figure 5 these side walls [6 are corrugated and theinner edges of the corrugations contact the outer faces of therefractory side walls of the fire pot or combustion chamber. The gasfiues 2 3 are thus bounded by the metal walls of the corrugations andthe refractory walls of the fire pot or combustion chamber so that thegases flowing down through the fiues are intensely hot for a substantialportion of their length; and in view of the small cross section of thefiues maximum heat exchange is effected between the hot gases descendingthe fiues and the air rising up between them.

Another advantage of the vertical gas fiues and the downward fiow ofheated gases is the freedom from soot accumulation on the walls reliedupon for heat transfer.

As distinguished from past practice, where tortuous passages areutilized to increase the surface area of the heated walls, heat transferin this instance is effected almost wholly through the vertical walls ofthe gas fiues 24 upon which soot accumulation is negligible. The bottomwall I4 of the gas chamber upon which the soot carried by the combustiongases is dropped, is not relied upon for heat transfer.

This bottom wall I4, as best shown in Figure 3, is in line with thebottom of the ash pit door opening. Consequently, when the ash pit doorI2 is open, soot accumulated on the wall M may be readily removed.

It is also to be observed that the bottom wall of the ash pit is at anelevation between the top and bottom edges of a draft and check opening25 in the ash pit door 12. This enables the use of a combination damperand check valve 26 which in one extreme position closes the draft andopens the check and vice versa. Opening of the check valve opens adirect passage to the exhaust flue 23.

Any suitable means may be used for swinging the combination damper andcheck valve on its pivotal mounting as for instance a control chain Zl'and a weight 28 connected to the combination surfaces.

door by a lever 29.

Under ordinary circumstances when the furnace is in operation and theflues are hot the down draft in the fiues is sufficient to preclude thedischarge of smoke and gases into the furnace room when the fire door isopened, but when the furnace is cold there may be a tendency at timesfor smoke and fiue gases to discharge through the open fire door; Topreclude this objectionable condition an auxiliary exhaust fiue 30 leadsfrom the upper dome 2| directly above the fire pot. This auxiliaryexhaust fiue is normally closed by a damper 3! but is openedautomatically upon opening of the fire door. For this purpose a link 32is connected to the fire door as at 33 and to a crank 34 on the dampershaft.

It is to be observed that the construction employed in the furnace ofthis invention entirely eliminates the necessity fora cast iron fire potand enables the use of sheet steel for all metal This facilitatesfabrication and allows for a welded gas-tight construction asdistinguished from the cemented connections used in conventional furnaceconstruction.

Protection against leakage of gas at the door openings is afforded bybounding the door openings by flanges 35, the front edges of whichengage paoking strips 36 carried in suitable channels formed on theinner surfaces of the doors as clearly shown in Figure 4.

The high efiicienoy of the furnace of this invention in most instancesobviates the need for forced air circulation, but as will be readilyapparent from Figure '7, if it is desired to use this system, the outercasing or shell may be of modified design to provide an air inletchamber 31 containing a filter 38 and a blower 39. The air entering thischamber from the return ducts (not shown) first passes through thefilter and then enters-the blower to be discharged into the .air chamberof the furnace.

capacity, and that loss in efficiency due to soot accumulation isavoided.

What I claim as my invention is: 1. In a furnace of the characterdescribed,

said furnace having a combustion chamber; an exterior wall having a,draft opening; an ash pit below the combustion chamber having its bottomWall on a level between the upper and lower edges of the draft opening;means defining a gas chamber, part of which is disposed beneath the ashpit; means for delivering gases from the combustion chamber to the gaschamber; an exhaust fiue for exhausting gases from the gas chamber, saidflue taking the gases from the bottom thereof beneath the ash pit; and acombination damper and check door mounted adjacent to the draft openingfor simultaneously closing the draft opening to the ash pit and openingthe check draft to the gas chamber beneath the ash pit and vice versa;and means for controlling said combination damper and check door.

2. In a heating apparatus: means defining a combustion chamber havingopposed upright flat side walls of refractory material; verticallycorrugated metal side walls covering the exteriors of said flatrefractory side walls of the combustion chamber and projecting above andbelow said flat refractory side walls with their corrugationssubstantially flat sided and V-shaped in cross section and having edgecontact with said flat refractory side walls so that said refractoryside walls cooperate with the corrugations to define two opposed banksof separated substantially V-shaped vertical flues collectivelyextending across the width of said fiat refractory side walls andjoining the spaces above and below the combustion chamber, the apexes ofthe corrugations in the corrugated side walls being vertically parallelstraight lines and parallel to said refractory side walls of thecombustion chamber so that the substantially V-shaped vertical flueshave a uniform cross section throughout their length, said corrugatedside walls resting against said refractory side walls whereby they arefree to expand and contract, accordion fashion, without interferencefrom the adjacent refractory walls and without breaking their edgecontact with said refractory walls; top and bottom walls secured to theupper and lower ends of the corrugated side walls to close the ends ofthe fiues; front and back walls joined to the corrugated side walls andthe top and bottom walls to coact therewith and define a gas chambersurrounding the combustion chamber; an exhaust flue leading from thebottom portion of the gas chamber and communicating with the bottoms ofthe vertical flues so that heated gases emanating from the combustionchamber flow downwarding through the opposed banks of separatedsubstantially V-shaped straight, uniform cross sectioned vertical fluesin direct contact with the hot refractory walls of the combustionchamher; and means forming a housing around the corrugated metal sidewalls to define vertical air passages extending along the exterior ofsaid corrugated metal side walls so that air conducted to said airpassages flows over the corrugated metal side walls and between itscorrugations to be heated thereby.

RICHARD C. JEPERTINGER.

